Looking sheepishly small between this Chrysler Town & Country and Toyota Matrix is our next Thrift Store find… It’s a ’75-78 Mercury Bobcat Villager, but I’m not aware of any styling or trim cues that would tip off the exact model year, as little changed before the 1979 facelift. The Bobcat was of course the Mercury version of the Ford Pinto (CC here), slightly tarted up and at a slightly higher price point. I briefly owned a ’73 Pinto Squire back in the ’80s, and found that while it had a much higher grade interior (materials, fit and finish) than my base ’71 Vega, it was hobbled by a weak 2.3l/automatic combination–much Noise, Harshness and Vibration emanated when the pedal was pressed, but little noticeable acceleration occurred.

Small wagons like these two are often a “go to” type of vehicle for small, but growing, families (“It takes a Villager to raise a child”). Thus, it makes for an interesting exercise to compare a few specs between the Merc and those of that thirty-years-younger (2003-08) Toyota Matrix in the next space over:

Bobcat (2.3l)

Matrix

Weight

2778lb

2679lb

HP

89hp (SAE net)

126hp

MPG

28.4 hwy

36 hwy

Cargo Area (rear seat down)

57.2 cu ft

53.2 cu ft

Length

178.8″

171.3″

Width

69.7″

69.9″

Height

52″

61.6″

(Note: finding these specs was challenging, and different sources listed different numbers in some cases. YMMV.)

Surprisingly, the Bobcat actually has more maximum cargo area (by 5 cu ft) than the Matrix. The Toyota is 8.5″ shorter in length and almost 10″ taller in height, so this really speaks more to packaging and interior space utilization. Not to mention the Bobcat looks smaller, at least to my eye…

Finally, I couldn’t resist adding this (poor quality) recording of a vintage Mercury Bobcat television ad… “Love that Bobcat,” indeed. You can read more about the Bobcat in this CC, or see what might possibly be the best one left in the world here.

I continue to maintain that the Bobcat was a better looking wagon than the Pinto. That Mercury grille, which looked dumb on the runabouts looked quite nice on the wagons, especially one of the up-level woodies.

This car reminds me of my little sister, who as a middle-school kid always said that she was going to have a Pinto wagon and a big dog when she got older. She has had several big dogs, but never a Pinto wagon.

The Bobcat actually began as a 1974 Canada-only model to replace the Cortina that Mercury dealers had been selling. It used an eggcrate grille (that later appeared on the ’76 Pinto) and double-width Pinto taillights, similar to the ones on the ’72-’73 Mercury Montego.

I had a teacher with a 1973 Cortina. He said in the summer, it was a great car and the Kent engine revved like mad. In the winter it was just a bear to even get started. The cars were not strong enough for ruts, snow banks and potholes, so last long they did not. They were also even more rustbuckety that most cars of the era and that is saying something.

I am sure the Canadian dealers were more than happy to see the Cortina gone. By this point, even the Brit expats had finally realised almost anything was better than a British car. I take that back: everything was better than British cars by this stage.

My Mom had a 1969-ish Cortina. I vividly remember that it was very difficult to start anytime it rained, or parked overnight on grass. I can only imagine how much fun this car would have been in rainy England. One would have thought that British engineers would have been masters at designing cars for wet weather by then.

Depends on what kind of accident it is. If I was getting T boned I’d take the Bobcat/Pinto by a mile with the massive C channel in the nice thick door. Head on then yeah I’d like the airbags in the Matrix.

I got T-boned in a Matrix. It did stunningly well. My youngest son was in the seat next to where the impact happened, and he was utterly uninjured. He didn’t even know anything bad had happened until he got out of the car and saw the damage. The side of the car crumpled like aluminum foil but the passenger cabin was intact.

Ditto on the Matrix (Pontiac Vibe) crash-ability. My son-in-law has an ’03 with 186k miles. Like one of the insurance commercials, his neighbor boys dropped a tree on it. Insurance totaled it, then gave him a low salvage buy back.

He pushed the roof back out, we straightened the passenger window frame and replaced the window regulator. The roof rack was a gone’r, the sunroof is now siliconed shut.

But – he still drives it a hundred miles a day on a salvage title, gets 36mpg (it’s an auto) and the only problem has been one of the recirc blend door controllers that buried in the dash. And there isn’t any rust. (Rare for a car in NW Indiana.) They have definitely gotten their money’s worth.

Part of the reason the Bobcat looks diminutive is that it sits lower than the Matrix, I have the 2003 Protege 5, and it positively looks small against many cars of a similar vintage despite being about 170″ in overall length- all due to it being rather low over all. The Mazda 3 looks a bit larger overall as it sits a bit taller, though not as tall as the Matrix though.

The Matrix’s cargo size and all isn’t too surprising as it’s based on the Corolla, and possibly the sedan at that so it has a taller, slightly stubby look to it, and thus seems to dwarf the poor Bobcat in the photos to an extent.

Fond memories of one of these owned back in the 1980s. Lots of cargo room; 2.3 & 4-speed plenty lively; living at high altitude, it always started, even at 30 below. I know about all the folks dropping 302’s in ’em (Mustang II underpinnings?), but I never felt the need.

Downside: the high sill line and low buckets gave that “sitting in the bathtub” feeling. But then, cars weren’t so _tall_ then, so I didn’t really notice.

If I could find a clean one that hadn’t been beaten to death, I’d happily give it good home!

@Daniel: damned if the deflector didn’t seem to help keep that sans-wiper rear window clean. Speaking of which: when exactly did rear wipers become commonplace on wagons, minivans, hatchbacks, SUV’s?

I paid a lot of attention to this as a kid in the 70’s. From what I remember, it was mainly import cars which had them in the late 70’s. A few domestics did – AMC Pacer, original Ford Escort, Omni/Horizon (but not TC3/O24 versions), original GM J-bodies. On the US brands, the wiper came and went, depending on model year, which made little sense. Later Escorts and J’s rarely had them.

They seemed to finally be considered a standard item around the beginning of the SUV boom, when the Cherokee, Grand C, and Explorer all had them and set the trend.

My favorite was the 80’s/90’s Camry wagons, with not one, but two rear wipers. If that didn’t keep the glass clean, nothing would.

I always thought those rear deflectors were put in place to help stop exhaust gas from entering through an open window in the hatch. But I’m guessing in these Bobcat/Pinto wagons the glass didn’t open.

Here’s an image of a 1974….Canada only.
Wagon would have also had Ford-style woodgrain panelling that year….ie, wider, birch-like trim surrounding lighter woodgrain….versus….chrome trim around darker panels.
This image was on the cover of the Canadian brochure that year.